Big Bath City Bid latest

The Big Bath City Bid is up and running again - it should be sorted within a month. Please check on your pledge from last year. If you didn't pledge then, please consider offering a new pledge now
http://us10.campaign-archive2.com/?u=eaae973744f9b9da5d103f53e&id=f821e5d13b&e=f051b4b06d

Bit concerning that no tax relief is now available on contributions. A shareholding  of £250 will now cost you £250  net  as compared to it only costing a net £175 under the previous arrangements.

Major Icewater wrote:Bit concerning that no tax relief is now available on contributions. A shareholding  of £250 will now cost you £250  net  as compared to it only costing a net £175 under the previous arrangements.

Indeed. I asked the same question to a director on Saturday, but in fairness they didn't have the in depth knowledge to answer.
So, could a member of the Bid Team give us the straight answer.
Tax relief or no tax relief?

Twitter will never be the same...

I wish they'd cropped out the bins.

Marc Monitor wrote:I wish they'd cropped out the bins.

Allelujah!!!!

Or found another venue.

I don't know where that is, actually. I was trying to work it out. At one point, I thought it was a train which is thrillingly Cold War.

No tax relief, sorry. This is because EIS depends on taking over at least 90% of the entity in question. The new Bid, if successful, would leave supporters/community shareholders with slightly over 50% (via the Society).

It's a real shame but there's not much we can do about it. I will be keeping my money in regardless though.

Would there be tax relief once the Supporters' Society eventually takes over 90% of the club or do you get one chance.

Marc Monitor wrote:I don't know where that is, actually. I was trying to work it out. At one point, I thought it was a train which is thrillingly Cold War.

It is on the team coach at Bishop's Stortford before the game on Saturday.

Actually, that is even more glamourous.

No, no tax relief at a future date, sorry.

yuffie wrote:

Marc Monitor wrote:I don't know where that is, actually. I was trying to work it out. At one point, I thought it was a train which is thrillingly Cold War.

It is on the team coach at Bishop's Stortford before the game on Saturday.

I thought there was going to be a second announcement that Powell was returning to a former role at the club...

Any chance of keeping this topic to the very important issue, in fact crucial to the future of this club, instead of diluting it with verbal diarrhoea.

What do people think about the chances of the money being raised?

stillmanjunior wrote:What do people think about the chances of the money being raised?

The initial bid provoked many comments regarding 3G pitches. This one is starting to bring up ground redevelopment. I would hope to see a realistic and achievable business plan which will protect and gradually grow the club.

I reckon raising / keeping in the money will be a struggle again. I'll also be interested in the arranged money deal which has been offered when the 300k threshold is reached. What guarantee / agreement do the loaners have.

I appreciate a good amount of effort has been put into the bid so expect the answers to be forthcoming in the prospectus.

stillmanjunior wrote:What do people think about the chances of the money being raised?

Very surprised that it has taken 2 days for you to get any replies to your question.

They struggled to reach £300,000 in 3 months last time and now (without tax relief) the new target is anything up to £375,000 in 1 (one) month. Personally I think that a lot of the business's that promised support previously will seriously consider their position as there is now no immediate reward for their "investment". What was promised previously was an immediate mandate to have an individual vote within a "one person one vote" scenario. Now what it boils down to is that they are being asked yet again to buy shares in a football club that is in a lot of debt. And they haven't wanted to do that for many years now!

It might also be seen as the takeover bid by the Society as someone else described it on here recently. I won't argue with that as that is the way I have always seen it!

Once some of the Society hierarchy get over the first hurdle/target of being seen as the majority shareholder (at other peoples expense) I begin to wonder if the 2nd hurdle will fall away as not so important? It doesn't matter what agreement is signed between the current board and the Bid team, there are no guaranteed promises that the next stage will succeed, or even begin! Planning permission, lack of investment, refusal of loan, current debts etc, are words that can be used to explain away a lack of any further movement towards the promised land.

So my answer to your question is a "no". Unless they manage to get Farage and Boris to join the Bid team as they know how to properly con people...

I don't think anyone is looking for a 'reward' on any investment other than the pleasure of seeing the football club progress nay, survive.
I am probably of the same opinion as the majority of 'investors' in that I don't expect to see that money again. What I am investing in is the continuation of an institution that has given me a lot of pleasure over the years both on and off the pitch.
I would regard the cessation of said institution as having a negative impact on my life.
What will you do on your Saturdays?

2weirdtown wrote:I don't think anyone is looking for a 'reward' on any investment other than the pleasure of seeing the football club progress nay, survive.
I am probably of the same opinion as the majority of 'investors' in that I don't expect to see that money again.  What I am investing in is the continuation of an institution that has given me a lot of pleasure over the years both on and off the pitch.
I would regard the cessation of said institution as having a negative impact on my life.
What will you do on your Saturdays?

well said!

Anything up to £375,000?? No, the target is £300,000.

As for the chances of it succeeding - well, we'll just have to see how people react to the prospectus. Yes, it might fail. I'd rather do the post-mortem afterwards then spend time now speculating on why it isn't going to work, before the prospectus has even launched.

Businesses and individuals will receive very similar share incentive scheme packages as were promised last year.

Regarding "one member, one vote", please see our section on proposals for member democracy on the Bid website: http://www.bigbathcitybid.org.uk/democracy.html

In essence the members of the Society (which will automatically include all community shareholders) will be able to democratically control the club's majority shareholder, which in turn will control 6 of 9 seats on the club board.

Regarding it being a "Society takeover", please note that the Society committee's proposed Board representatives are Nick Blofeld, Nick Thompson, Sally Harris, Jon Bickley and Shane Morgan. Of these only Shane Morgan could be considered part of any long-standing "Society hierarchy". The sixth Society director will be directly elected by Society members/community shareholders to serve as the club's Supporter Liaison Officer, a UEFA-sanctioned position.

Please also see the most recent Society committee: of 12 elected members, 5 have joined within the last 2 years: http://www.bathcitysociety.org/the-committee.html

Stay tuned

Bloody hell, am I in a heirarchy now? Me and Ken Loach? There's a turn-up for the books.

And a further update, which has just gone out to pledgers:

Big Bath City Bid deadline extended to 28 September

After further discussion and negotiation with Microgenius and GoCardless, we have secured an extension of the Bid deadline until 28 September.

Sorry for any confusion caused by the initial announcement of a 16 Sept deadline but we hope you'll agree this is good news for the Bid.

Prospectus progress

The Community Shares Unit has given extensive feedback on our draft prospectus and it will take a few more working days to get it into a position where it is ready to share with you. We are passing drafts back and forth several times a day and have made significant progress.

While we're reluctant to set a launch date until we know for certain, we're advised that we're on track for a launch towards the end of next week. This will give us a little under four weeks to raise the £300,000 we need to make Bath City FC a majority community-owned club.

Big Bath City Bid stall at tomorrow's match

If you're going to tomorrow's match against East Thurrock, look out for the Supporters Society banner in the club bar from about 2pm. Representatives from the Bid will be there to hear your feedback and answer your questions as best we can given the progress of the prospectus.

We will also plan a public meeting at Twerton Park in the coming weeks to explain more about the new community share offer.

Why the short time frame?

Microgenius cannot keep the pledges open any longer than 30 Sept, and we need one day to process it all. So 28 Sept is the last possible date.

Just to add to my last comment. In our three month campaign last year, the great bulk of the money was raised in the early weeks and the later weeks. Community shares consultants have since told us that this is almost always the case. So we are not too worried about having a concentrated 4 week period to convert pledges. Bear in mind also that we have pledgers details and can contact them directly, whereas last year we had to do events, media work, street stalls, posters etc to raise awareness and explain community shares concept. A lot of ground work has already been done, and of course the target is much less daunting - we've proven that it's possible to raise 300k, it's just a case of getting people confident in the new prospectus.